Most successful manager - player partnerships

Certainly many of these through the years where the manager has had a big influence on the player's own success and consequently brought success to the club.
Here are some that come to mind:
Bill Shankly/Kevin Keegan
Mourinho/Frank Lampard
SAF/Ryan Giggs
SAF/Eric Cantona
SAF/Robin van Persie (short period, but got us our 20th league title)
Anymore?

First thing that comes to my mind is Mourinho & Materazzi. The influence Mourinho appeared to have had on him in their short time together appears to be quite profound.

“How can you talk of the best Coach in the world, when there are four that are more or less at the same level?” Materazzi told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “Jose Mourinho, Guardiola, [Carlo] Ancelotti and [Marcello] Lippi. And, just one step below them, [Antonio] Conte and [Jurgen] Klopp.

“I can tell you that Mourinho and Lippi are the best, in my opinion, not just because of their self-explanatory results, but because I experienced them from close-up. But I understood who Jose was before even meeting him.

“We'd just been knocked out of Euro 2008 on penalties against Spain. He didn't have my telephone number and I wasn't [Diego] Milito. It was possible that I was going to leave Inter. And I received a phone text: 'I'm waiting for you so we can start winning together'.”

Matrix was then asked to give the secrets behind the Portuguese Coach's success.

“Drive, cleverness, knowledge, experience and empathy.

“Drive: he can multiply energies. I could give you a thousand examples, but one from the Triplete year will suffice: we lost 3-1 against Catania, and the next day he slaughtered us all, from the strongest to the weakest.

“We look each other in the eye, suck it up and four days later we go to London and beat Chelsea. Mourinho can read your feelings, even the hidden ones, and get inside your mind.

“Cleverness: He presses all the right buttons, not just his player's. I've never seen anyone so scientific in provoking his opponents, so good at making them nervous.

“But he goes beyond. Sometimes he feeds on the controversy, but he always keeps the team away from that. He's the perfect shield.

“Knowledge, that's what he provides his team with on the subject of their opponents. After working on their tactics for a week, you know it all about them. And you can take to the pitch ready to make your game, and also to break theirs.

“Experience: Mourinho knows how to win because he's done that a lot, and that in turn is because he started winning so early.

“His secret was to start his career when he was young, with a Coach's mind when he was a simple assistant.

“Empathy: that's the first thing he seeks out with his team, the condition that is absolutely necessary to build a strong group, one that is united and has no cracks. That's what leads you to fight against everything and everyone.”

Mourinho - Deco at Porto (If it wasn't for Mourinho, Deco would had left to Barcelona after the UEFA cup win)
Del Bosque - Morientes
Carlo Ancelotti - Shevchenko (Ancelotti 4x3x2x1 system took the best out of Sheva qualities)
Jupp Heynckes - Dante (Dante was considered one of the world best defenders)

See a lot of SAF & X posts, but I don't see perhaps the biggest one of all...

SAF & Keane.

Click to expand...

That is a very good shout imo. Obviously people affected by the bust-up they had. In the earlier days their partnership was second to none. Pity Keano overstepped his mark and spoiled all that. Thinking about SAF's words re the player after the CL semi final in Milan where Keano won us a place in the final almost single handed.

That is a very good shout imo. Obviously people affected by the bust-up they had. In the earlier days their partnership was second to none. Pity Keano overstepped his mark and spoiled all that. Thinking about SAF's words re the player after the CL semi final in Milan where Keano won us a place in the final almost single handed.